Origination of Johnny Football

I was listening to Lithium on Sirius/XM and came across a grunge song that uses the term Johnny Football. Was this a term used for good players throughout the ages, or is it coincidental? Serious question, I haven't heard the nickname until this year.

quote:I had never listened to the song until the OP shared the link. I guess the song is common knowledge to white people of a certain age?

Extremely common knowlege. That song received tons of radio airplay throughout the mid-late 90's and had a popular music video on MTV (back when MTV played music videos) which featured a mega-hot cheerleader.

For real doe, I lived in SA back when he played at Tivy. Kerrville is served by SA TV news and SA papers. The news in SA called him Johnny Football back then. It didn't originate with them, either; it started in Kerrville and they just picked up on it - the same way that ESPN picked up on Aggies calling him Johnny Football and started using it themselves while calling our games.

That said, the first time I heard it used to describe him I thought of Nada Surf! "And if you see Johnny Football Hero in the hall, tell him he played a great game! Tell him you liked his article in the newspaper!"

quote:Extremely common knowlege. That song received tons of radio airplay throughout the mid-late 90's and had a popular music video on MTV (back when MTV played music videos) which featured a mega-hot cheerleader.